1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document image layout apparatus that respectively arranges print data on a data arrangement area.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, drawing elements such as graphics and character strings are arranged at a predetermined position on a page in accordance with a template. As used herein, the term “page” refers to a limited area such as A4 paper on which non-text data such as graphics or tables and text such as character strings are arranged.
As conventional page layout techniques, for example, an area on which an image is arranged is segmented into several areas on the paper surface so as to assign an article to these areas (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-146949). A technique for cutting out an image for rearrangement is also known (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-153371).
However, the size of the data arrangement area on which print data is arranged is fixed, whereas the size of print data with respect to the data arrangement area is not constant. Consequently, print data may protrude from the data arrangement area.
For example, assume the case where the original document is scanned by a scanner, data (image data) that has been cut out from the scanned data is arranged in the data arrangement area as the print data so as to make a print thereof. In this case, when the print data protrudes from the data arrangement area, it may require that the size of the print data is reduced in print data units or page units.
However, since there are various sizes of the print data with respect to the data arrangement area, the readability of print data, in particular, print data relating to a text attribute, is significantly reduced due to excessive reduction as shown in FIG. 35.
Also, although the size of the data arrangement area is constant, unwanted margin is undesirably increased due to the reduction in the size of the print data.
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-146949, a plurality of patterns of the areas on which images are arranged is generated, and the images are then arranged in the respective areas so as to evaluate the patterns, which may require a considerable amount of time for processing. In addition, unwanted margin may occur depending on the pattern of the data arrangement area.
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-153371, a predetermined segment is recognized, and article data having various shapes and sizes is synthesized, relying on the segment used for an image cutout. In this case, print data cannot be resided within the data arrangement area. Also, in this case, unwanted margin may occur within a page.
When text data that has been converted into a character code by performing character recognition such as OCR is arranged in the template TP, loss of information may occur due to false recognition and language (e.g., Japanese, English) dependency.